The climate-minded stuntmen showed up on Capitol Hill in Survivaball suits, with friends in tow, to hector Sen. Arlen Specter (PA), and the Senate in general. At the risk of taking the shameless truth-benders at face value, here’s a bit of their announcement:

At one point, Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men, wearing a Survivaball, began a speech on the Capitol steps. “I think this is our country, our country!” he said, before being grabbed by a policeman. At that point he let out a bloodcurdling scream and tumbled all the way down the monumental Capitol steps. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said at the bottom. “No matter what comes as a result of climate change, Survivaball can protect us.” (Video here.)

At another point, a fleet of Survivaballs chased Senator Arlen Spector outside the Hart Senate Office Building. “Anyone as wishy-washy on climate issues as the Senator, who thinks that clean coal is an answer, needs a Survivaball,” said Ross Finlayson, a top Surviva-model involved in the chase. “Maybe he ran away because he knew that even he couldn’t afford one.”

Survivaballs are the stupidest costume known to humankind, and the Yes Men say that their point is to highlight the absurdity of the Senate’s slow pace in responding to climate change. Originally deployed by “Halliburton” at an insurance conference on the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast (full story here), they have now replicated, and a fleet of 20 are available as a tool for climate activists…

“Not doing anything about climate change is even stupider than the this costume,” said Bonanno. “After yesterday’s encounter, and the Chamber’s continued insistence it will do nothing on climate change, we realized we need to take them Survivaballs.”

On the timing:

The actions today served as an early kickoff for the 350.org international day of climate action planned for this coming weekend. On Saturday, October 24th people in over 3,800 communities in 164 countries will come together to demand that leaders embrace the target of 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon. (Until recently, and for at least 650,000 years, the level of atmospheric carbon never exceeded 290 ppm. The current level is 390 ppm and rising.)